Question

I have problem with the tar linux program. I would like to create a incremental backup. I use following tar command for the first full backup:

tar --create --gzip --listed-incremental=$SAVEDIR/backup.snar --file=$SAVEDIR/$DATE.tar.gz $EXCLUDE $DIRECTORY

$EXCLUDE contains for example "--exclude test/testdir --exclude test/testdir2"
$DIRECTORY contains "-C /Users/user1/Desktop/ test"

If I execute the command I get following error:

tar: Option --listed-incremental=/Users/hofmeister/Desktop/test/backup.snar is not supported
Usage:
  List:    tar -tf <archive-filename>
  Extract: tar -xf <archive-filename>
  Create:  tar -cf <archive-filename> [filenames...]
  Help:    tar –help

If I change the --listed-incremental option to -g =$SAVEDIR/backup.snar. I get:

Usage:
  List:    tar -tf <archive-filename>
  Extract: tar -xf <archive-filename>
  Create:  tar -cf <archive-filename> [filenames...]
  Help:    tar --help

What went wrong?
I use following version of tar: bsdtar 2.8.3 - libarchive 2.8.3

The problem is the tar version which is bsd. With macports you could install gnutar. Here everything works fine!

Answer 1

Looks like you’re using bsdtar, and not the gnu tar. bsdtar doesn’t support incremental backups. They have slightly different flags too.